Chapter 27

The summer had been duller than dishwater as far as Misty was concerned. Living with Bethany hadn’t been a whole lot of fun, and her sister had not been a very happy camper all through it.

From what Misty could make out, and she wasn’t very clear about it, Bethany wasn’t sure what had gone wrong with Derrick. One minute it had seemed like she all but had him where she wanted him, with a ring on her finger and one in his nose, but the day before school let out he’d just told her he couldn’t see her anymore, and that everything was over with. She’d tried every trick she could think of in the few minutes before he was gone, but the fact remained he was gone. She couldn’t get him on the phone; even his mother was surly to her when she tried. And he was gone from his dorm room; apparently he’d waited until his last final, then blown off graduation.

Hell, they’d even set a wedding date, and she’d been looking at wedding dresses. What had happened? Bethany didn’t even have a clue!

The one thing Bethany had been sure about was that she didn’t want to have to go back to Spearfish Lake in utter defeat. She’d planned on staying in Grand Rapids for the summer anyway, and had her rent paid in advance. She hadn’t had much luck in finding a job, and was reduced to working a drive-up window at a Taco Bell just to keep going. There weren’t many prospects for anything better, at least any time soon, and that had made things even worse. She’d been giving some thought about going to grad school, just to have something better to do, but most of her free time was spent putting in job applications wherever she could manage. The prospects didn’t look good.

All of which meant that it hadn’t been a very fun summer for Misty. While she was darn glad she didn’t have to be in Spearfish Lake putting up with Walt – who she could control very little – it hadn’t been much more fun staying with Bethany, who was depressed a lot of the time and pretty mad the rest of it. There hadn’t been a lot Misty could do but hang around the apartment, watch daytime TV, and dream of last summer when she’d been hanging out with Howie, playing around a lot and getting her hooks into him. Those had been good days!

At least she knew where she’d screwed up with Howie, which is more than Bethany could say about Derrick. Howie still filled Misty’s mind a lot – it would be wonderful to be back with him the way things used to be, but she hadn’t been able to do anything about it all summer. Maybe if she could get back home for a while, and maybe if he’d finally seen the error of his ways from hanging around that dull-as-dishwater Trevetheck bitch, he might be willing to see the light, and maybe things could be put back together.

Bethany was at work slinging stuff out the drive-up window and probably hating every second of it, while Misty was sitting alone in the hot apartment in her underwear, watching some stupid game show on TV and just about bored to tears when the phone rang. She rolled over and picked it up; even if it was a sales call or something it would be someone to talk to instead of her increasingly moody sister.

It proved to be her mother. “I wasn’t sure I would find you there,” she said.

“Where else would I be? There’s no place to go and no one to do it with.”

“It can’t be that bad.”

“You want to bet?” Misty sighed. “There’s not much to do around here, I don’t know anybody, and neither Bethany nor I have any money to do anything anyway.”

“I know it hasn’t been easy,” her mother replied. “I sure wish things hadn’t gone sour between your sister and Derrick, but they did, and she’s got to get back on track. She’s not going to be able to manage that working at a Taco Bell.”

“Yeah, even I can see that. And I’m not accomplishing anything useful either. I wish to hell Walt hadn’t been such an asshole. I might have been able to get back with Howie if I hadn’t had to hide from him.”

“Well, you’re not going to have to hide from him for a year,” her mother said. “The judge threw the book at him. He’s going to be at the county jail until next summer sometime, unless he gets some time off for good behavior.”

“Not much chance of that,” Misty grinned, realizing that the ordeal of having to live with Bethany was about over with. “You’re saying I can come home?”

“There’s no reason not to, now. You might want to wait until morning before you leave.”

“Hell, no, I want out of here so bad it isn’t funny. I can be on the road in thirty minutes. If I get in late, I get in late. There still might be a chance to get back with Howie.”

“Don’t think it’s going to be easy. I keep seeing him riding around with that Trevetheck girl, and they’re looking very close. You’re going to have to split him off from her before you can manage anything.”

“I can try,” she sighed. “I know it’s not going to be easy.”

“You know, I hate to say it, but I’m beginning to wonder if it’s worth the effort. You’ve wasted months on that and haven’t gained an inch. You might want to think about getting back with Matt Wadsworth. As far as I know he’s not going with anyone, and I think he knows something about Rusty he’s not telling us about.”

“I’m not crazy about the idea,” she said. “Matt is a jerk. Less of a jerk than Walt, but still a jerk.”

“He’s not going to be anywhere near as good a practice boyfriend as Howie, that’s for sure. But it’s not like it has to go anywhere. You don’t want to try to get serious until you get to college, and that’s not all that far off, now.”

“Let’s not talk about it now,” Misty said. “We’re wasting time I could be using in getting out of here. See you in a few hours, Mom.”

As she’d promised, Misty was on the road in her Toyota within half an hour of hanging up the phone with her mother. She did make a stop at the Taco Bell to tell Bethany she was leaving, and got a large cola to take with her on the road. Soon she was headed toward Spearfish Lake and unfinished business.

About that time Jared and Bree were sitting in his pickup truck – one that had been his uncle Randy’s for years – in the Frostee Freeze, having a cone. Even though the football team was deep into two-a-days, now a week into practice, there was still some time for them to hang out together toward the middle of the day. Both of them knew that Howie and Autumn were off somewhere by themselves; they’d done that several times in the last week or so, and neither of them had much doubt about what that meant.

While it was uncomfortably warm and humid, it was overcast and there wasn’t much sign of thermal activity, so Bree hadn’t even thought about trying a launch today. She’d been out hot and heavy in the strong days the week following her diamond goal flight. The day afterwards had been strong, and she’d decided to do a Warsaw-and-return flight, the same as her silver distance flight almost a year before. She made it, and this time with none of the drama that had accompanied her on the previous trip over there. What’s more, she did it in a little under three hours. It had taken her a little over five hours the previous fall, but that included nearly an hour of scratching around near Turtle Hill, and then just cruising around up high waiting for the clock to run out. Now, she was working on speed, for it was clear that any diamond distance flight out of Spearfish Lake was going to depend on going as fast as possible.

The next day, she’d set a different turn point, Frontier, on the route she’d taken for most of her distance attempts over the summer. Again, the intent was to work on flying fast, not just covering ground; it was short enough that even on a weak day she had enough time to be back in time for cross-country practice.

She’d managed two Frontier runs before the weather shut her off and intended to do it again as soon as the weather was promising. But now there was the chance to hang out with Jared a little. But both of them seemed a little at loose ends; it wasn’t the same when Howie and Autumn weren’t with them. “Got any bright ideas about what we can do this afternoon?” she asked.

“Not really,” Jared replied. “I suppose we could drive down to Camden and catch a flick, but I don’t know what’s playing and it would really be cutting it tight to get back in time for practice.”

“Yeah, there is that,” she agreed. “Practice is going pretty good and our first meet is only about a week away, it sure seems like the summer went by fast.”

“It won’t be long before school starts. How about if we go swimming?”

“We could do that. It would be better than just hanging out. It’s even dead here. I’d have to have you take me out to my place so I could get a swimsuit, though.”

“So no problem with that. I’d have to get one myself. Let’s do it. It’s better than sitting around here like a bump on a log.”

Within minutes they’d gone to his house to get his swimsuit, and were out on the highway heading for the Gravengood house. “Hey, Jared,” she said along the way, “do you think we can find that pond out in the woods we went to with the gang a couple weeks ago? It’s got to be warmer than going into the big lake here at the beach.”

“I’m pretty sure I can find it. I’m pretty good at remembering my way around in the woods.”

“Good, let’s do it,” she replied, an idea crossing her mind. Like Howie and Autumn, she and Jared hadn’t been very huggy and kissy, and most of the time that was fine with her. But the last few days they’d both seen that changing with their friends, and Bree had come to the rather surprising opinion, for her, that she wouldn’t mind a little of that herself. Maybe there was a way to give that a little push; it was something she’d been tossing around in her mind for weeks, and this would be the perfect occasion to give it a try.

Soon Jared pulled his pickup into her back yard. “Back in a minute,” she told him. “I’ll have to change.”

Figuring that it would take more than a minute – Bree was a girl, after all – Jared shut off the truck and just sat there thinking about nothing in particular.

His thoughts were soon interrupted by Bree’s aunt, “So, Jared, what are you up to today?” she asked.

“Oh, we decided we’d go out to this swimming hole we know of out in the woods and hang out for a couple of hours,” he told her.

“That ought to be fun. It’s getting pretty close to school starting. Are you ready for it?”

“Other than the fact I’m not looking forward to summer being over with, yes. I’m getting anxious for football to get under way, too.”

They talked about the prospects for the football season for a moment, then Bree’s aunt said something unexpected: “Jared, I know we don’t often get the chance to talk one-on-one very much, but thank you.”

“You’re welcome, but for what?”

“For being you, mostly,” Mrs. Gravengood replied. “You know, Bree used to be pretty shy about almost everything but her flying. Hanging around you and your friends has opened her up an awful lot, and I like the change.”

“Well, Bree is fun to be around,” he told her. “We promised each other long ago that we wouldn’t get serious with each other since it can’t continue when she goes to the Air Force Academy, but there’s no reason we can’t have some fun till that happens.”

“It looks like it’s worked out pretty well. There’s no point in getting serious in high school, especially where the two of you are concerned. Take care of her, Jared. She’s a lot better than she was a year ago, but she’s still pretty fragile and tentative in a lot of ways.”

“I realize that. That may be part of the reason we’re good for each other. I know she’s had some problems, but then I’ve had some, too.”

“Your father? I mean, your real one? She’s said something about that.”

“Yeah,” he nodded. It wasn’t any secret, at least among the four friends who hung out together. Jared was dead sure that sooner or later his real father was going to show up and make an ass out of himself. Though he hadn’t seen him since he and his mother left California, a long time ago, it was still on his mind, and he had no idea what would happen when he did show up. The fear of that day had been on him for years, and it was part of the reason he’d worked so hard at martial arts and wrestling. There was a past there that couldn’t be denied, and Jared knew it had shaped him in ways he’d really rather not have been shaped.

“She hasn’t told me a lot about it,” Mrs. Gravengood went on. “But I think I can tell you this much. The longer before it happens, the better prepared for it you’re going to be. Don’t worry about it too much, because I think you can probably handle it.”

“I hope you’re right,” he told her. “I’d still like to have it over with.”

“Sometimes we just have to live with these things,” she replied. “I had a big problem with my mother for a long time. Bree may have told you about that. I’m afraid it shaped my life in ways I’d really rather it hadn’t. But I had to go on from where I was. Just hang in there, Jared.”

Bree soon showed up and got in the right seat of the pickup. They politely told Mrs. Gravengood goodbye, and she told them to have fun.

As soon as they were out on the gravel road in front of her house, Bree undid the seat belt slid over next to him, and fastened the middle seat belt. “You know,” she smiled, “this is one thing that you can’t do in a car anymore,” she said as she put her arm around him.

“It does feel kind of good,” he smiled. “What brings this on?”

“You mean besides the fact that I want to do it?” she giggled. She wasn’t about to tell him about the swimsuit she was wearing; it was actually one of Becca’s tie-ons, and even Becca hadn’t worn it very much. Either Becca was in a situation where she needed to be wearing more, or could get away with wearing nothing at all. It would be fun to get Jared’s reaction to seeing her in it, and at least with Jared she felt pretty safe in doing something she wouldn’t have considered a year before.

“Fine with me,” he told her. “I kind of like cuddling up next to you.”

“I do, too. You realize this is something I wouldn’t have done a year ago, don’t you?”

“Bree, you’re nothing like the girl I knew a year ago. You’ve come out in so many ways it’s not funny. A year ago, I don’t think I’d have liked hanging out with you very much. Now, well, it’s hard to believe it’s probably going to have to come to an end. I mean, I knew almost from the beginning it was going to happen and didn’t think it would be a big deal then, but now when the time comes it’s going to be hard to say goodbye to you.”

“We knew that is going to happen,” she told him. “But Jared, things have been so much better since I started hanging out with you and Howie and Autumn, of course. Becca was right. I needed to make some friends, and I think I made some good ones. So what were you and Aunt Jackie talking about?”

“Oh, stuff. Football. My sperm donor, a little. I sure wish I knew what was going to happen with that. Oh, she said something about having some problems with her mother once upon a time, like I knew what she was talking about. Do you know anything about it?”

“Not much,” Bree sighed. “I know that her mother was in a mental hospital when Aunt Jackie was about our age. She eventually died there. Apparently Aunt Jackie took a bunch of crap from kids in school, and she got very shy about it. I guess it’s part of the reason she and Uncle Mark never had kids of their own. Beyond that, I don’t know very much.”

“If kids were anything like they are today back then, I guess I can understand why she took a bunch of crap. Do you ever get people dissing on you because of your mother?”

“Not much. I mean, everybody knows she died in a car accident, and they can understand that, I guess. It bothered me for quite a while, though. I had a hell of a time coming to understand how she could leave Becca and me.”

“I guess I understand,” he shook his head. “It’s not the same thing with me. I was pretty surprised when Mom said we weren’t going back home to my dad, ever again. I mean, it was something I never thought would happen, so I hadn’t even considered it. Of course, I was ten so I didn’t understand it much. I’ll tell you, when it finally came to me that he wasn’t going to be pounding me again, I was about the happiest kid you ever saw.”

“You still think he’s going to come for you?”

“I can’t believe he’s not,” Jared sighed. “I know he’s supposed to be out of jail, but no one has heard a word about him, at least that they’ve told me. My worst nightmare is that he’ll show up and have it so I have to go with him. There’s no way I’m going to let that happen.”

“It’s been a long time,” she said hopefully. “Maybe it never will.”

“It better not. Bree, I probably told you he broke into Uncle Randy’s house not long after that, while Mom and I were staying there. Uncle Randy beat the living shit out of him, and managed to get him sent to jail for a long time.”

“I knew that.”

“Bree, that was when I made up my mind that I’d have to learn to take care of myself if he ever showed up and Uncle Randy wasn’t around. Bree, I don’t like to say it, even to you, but if I had to I could kill him. I’ve got the skills to do it and make it look like it was an accident.”

“I always knew you were serious about your martial arts, and I guess I knew why,” she replied. “You remember last fall when Gil was talking about my having to face the prospect of having to kill someone in combat? I’ve thought about that a lot. I think I could do it. I mean, I think I can train myself to do it without thinking about it while it’s happening. That doesn’t mean I might not regret it afterwards, but if it was in mortal combat, I don’t think it would bother me too much.”

“You hope. It’s bothered me a lot. I’m not sure I could do it to anyone else, but I know I could do it to him. One thing is for sure: if I ever have to take him on, it won’t be jet fighter to jet fighter. It’ll be face to face.”

“That’s bound to make things different,” she smiled. “You know, I hate to say it, but maybe we shouldn’t be talking about such a morbid subject right now. I know I’ve got other things I’d like to talk about, and I know you do, too.”

Their talk turned to the quickly-approaching start of school, and that lasted them for quite a while. It turned out that Jared’s memory for the route out to the pond was good and he didn’t miss a turn, although he had to drop into four-wheel drive for a while over the last leg. Soon they made the final turn on the faint two-rut, and could see the pond through the trees in front of them – and Howie’s familiar Jeep parked at the road end. “Well, I guess we know where they disappeared to,” he said.

Bree got a blush on her face. She’d dared to plan to show off her very brief bikini in front of Jared, anticipating the reaction she would get – but with Howie and Autumn involved? She hadn’t planned on that! “Maybe we ought to leave them alone,” she suggested.

“Naw, we’re friends,” Jared replied, not noticing Bree’s discomfort.

“I guess,” she replied bravely as she unhooked the seat belt and began to slide out of the truck. She was going to be stuck with it now, no matter what, and she knew it. Hell, it couldn’t be that bad a deal, she told herself. After all, Becca had spent half the summer out at the nudist camp wearing a lot less – well a little less – than the swimsuit she had on under her clothes, and it hadn’t bothered her at all. Several times Becca had suggested that Bree might like to come out and bat a volleyball around, just teasing of course. There were limits, and despite everything, she wasn’t going to go beyond them.

“Hey, guys,” they heard Autumn call. “Fancy seeing you here.”

“Hope we’re not interrupting anything,” Jared called back, noticing that the two of them were well out in the pond, with only their heads out of water.

“No, come on in, the water’s fine.”

Jared didn’t waste much time peeling out of his outer clothes and getting down to his swimsuit, and didn’t notice that Bree was being a little reluctant. “Come on, let’s go,” he told her.

“In a minute,” she said, trying to put off the final truth. Maybe if she let him get ahead of her, he wouldn’t see her backside. The front of Bree’s bikini was more modest, after all. Well, a little more modest. “I’ll be right along.”

It might have worked, except that when he was about knee-deep in the water Jared decided he didn’t want to wear his watch, so turned back to the truck to leave it on the seat. The timing was such that he got a full view of what Bree didn’t want him to see. “Hey, wow, Bree,” he called to her. “That really looks good.”

Bree’s blush could have lit a forest fire, but she faced it bravely, turning to face him in the process, and giving a good view of her backside to the two in the pond. “You like it?” she asked as modestly as she could manage under the circumstances.

“Oh, yeah, do I ever!”

“I hoped you would,” she said demurely. “Except that I figured we’d be alone. I guess I have to live with it, though.”

“Hey, Bree!” Autumn called. “I think you even have me beat!”

“Huh? What do you mean.”

Autumn stood up – the water where she and Howie were was only thigh-deep, and turned so her back was showing to the two on shore. She turned and said over her shoulder, “I think you have even less on than I do.”

“It could be,” a red-faced Bree replied, looking at Autumn’s nearly-bare bottom, then turned to get in the water herself to cover up a bit.

“You know, Howie,” Jared said to his friend a few moments later, “if we get these two girls into a sexy swimsuit competition, I can hardly wait to see what they’re going to come up with next.”

That earned him a well-deserved splashing from both the girls, and by the time it was over, most of the embarrassment was gone, too.

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